beautiful things

White hat

I did a massive photoshoot before leaving for vacation so I'm going to try and round up my FOs from 2007 in relatively short order. Here's a quick one from a loooong time ago...

White hat

Date:
April 2007
Yarn:
0.5 skeins Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted in natural
Needles:
Addi Turbo US#7 40" circulars

Pattern:
"Kim's Hats" by Kim Hamlin in Last Minute Knitted Gifts - rolled brim version

The story:

This is also an early project from a different era. I wanted to use up the Shepherd Worsted I had bought for the accents of the Yankees set and then of course ended up having to buy more to finish the hat. I seem to remember knitting it over easter.

One of the reasons I was (and still am) excited about knitting was so I could knit myself some hats. Several years ago I had a hat I really liked and then I lost it and was really mad at myself for losing it and since then had been having trouble finding a decent hat. Now I could knit myself the perfect hat!

This is not really that perfect hat, but I have been wearing it a lot lately. It's slightly too large and not quite as warm as I would like, but it looks ok and goes with everything.

Finished shots:

Why am I wearing a black dress?!! Well, I was trying it (the dress) on and thought maybe it would be an interesting way to show the hat...

Flickr set is here.
Ravelry link is here.

White hat

I finished the white hat! It is pretty plain and boring and functional, and perhaps slightly large (it fits easily without stretching), but it was a good brainless knit and hopefully it won't look too dirty too soon. Although it is machine washable.

I'm too tired to do an official write-up but here is an almost-finished as well a finished webcam shot.

More yarn purchases

I am still salivating from yet another visit to Purl where I made Unscheduled Yarn Purchases. Yup, that's right, I have yet another "NYS" project.

(By the way, I have semi-invented my own nomenclature for knitting projects:
NYS = Not Yet Started (but I've bought the yarn)
WIP = Work In Progress (ie on the needles)
UFO = Unfinished Object (ie the knitting is basically done, it just needs finishing)
FO = Finished Object)

So, first of all, kind of annoyingly, I ran out of the white Shepherd's worsted for my white hat in part, or perhaps in whole because I used it to knit my homework swatches for the finishing workshop I attended on Sunday (more on that in a future entry). Today I was going to just stop by quickly at Purl on the way home and pick up another skein. And then I decided, well, now I have this whole other skein, I should use the rest of it to knit the lovable bunny from Last Minute Knitted Gifts for my sister who is visiting next month.

So I picked up the Belangor French Angora in 802 pink for the insides of the ears. And then, you know, I browsed a little more, and found the original yarn specified in the pattern, Blue Sky Alpacas Sport Weight and I fell in love. Especially as I remembered that this is the same yarn that the Ombre Alpaca Blanket uses, and that blanket is SOFT. (The blanket, sadly, is no longer on display in the store for fondling.) I decided that a really soft bunny is better than a soft bunny and voila, another project!

There were a couple of other yarns that I particularly noticed. Alchemy Bamboo is gorgeous but, um, expensive! Also, Terra from The Fiber Company has a gorgeous texture and striking colors (also shown beautifully here). I've yet to buy yarn without knowing what project I'm going to use it for though. Perhaps that's part of being a beginner knitter.

I didn't knit at all yesterday and it feels like years! I'm hoping to finish the hat tonight. I'm completely addicted to Etsy by the way, but I can browse while knitting.

Swatches

So, I started swatching for the a-line tank. The gauge on the first swatch, knit with US#7 needles as called for in the pattern, came out too small, so I tried again with US #8 needles and it came out perfect. I can't believe it took me all of knitting group (over two hours) to knit the second swatch! I did remember to do a garter switch border this time.

The anoying thing is that right now my 40" circular US #8 needles are busy... last weekend I cast on a quick hat for myself using white Shepherd's Worsted left over from the Yankees set. I've been thinking about knitting myself a hat for a while but the weather got warmer, so I wasn't going to just yet, and then the weather got colder again so I thought I might as well, as I needed some easy knitting while waiting for my Evita yarn to arrive. I was hoping to have this project on the side while I worked on the a-line tank as I can practically knit it with my eyes closed (or reading other blogs) but now I'm going to have to either finish it first, or put it completely on hold.

The hat is an adapted "basic roll brim hat" from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts (seen here).

The other thing is that I'm having second thoughts about knitting the a-line tank in the size I was planning. I measured a variety of my favorite tank tops prior to ordering the yarn and it looked like the small size was going to work just fine. However, since swatching, I took some measurements on myself and, well, maybe I need to knit one size up. Which means I would need an additional ball of yarn. If the small comes out a little tight, could I make it bigger by blocking? Knitting the larger size seems to be a safer bet, but then I have to order one more ball of yarn. What to do, what to do...